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INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

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life... that I do not have to suffer in hell. By doing seva you can pass by the rebirths<br />

[yonis], by doing that you get over them.<br />

An elderly woman<br />

To gain happiness for the children and peace of the house. To gain good things<br />

for the next life.<br />

An elderly woman<br />

You will always face troubles, but you can easily get over them if you are taking<br />

the name of God. By taking the name of God all troubles go away.<br />

An elderly man<br />

The place from which you came, to that place you will return. The rainwater<br />

falls to the ground, goes into a river, which merges with the ocean. By the<br />

power of the sun it will get back to the sky to become rainwater again. It is just<br />

a play [khel]. The deeper you will go into it the more complicated it will be. No<br />

one is able to tell you that path. Only when God gives you grace you will<br />

know it.<br />

An elderly man<br />

For pureness of mind/heart. For good in next life. If I am reciting Ram, Ram,<br />

Ram it will bring me on the path of God. It will free me from bad thoughts and<br />

tension. Who has seen the next life? We have to do good karma, not be cheating.<br />

If I cheat then I will feel like a cheater and I think God will punish me for<br />

that. If you do good action then I will get a good rebirth.<br />

In the divine play the world is seen as the arena for rewards and punishments of<br />

conducts in this life and future life-forms that will be decided after the event of death.<br />

Rather than visualizing a release from the cycle of transmigration, which is difficult<br />

or even impossible to attain in the present age, the majority of respondents seemed to<br />

define the ultimate goal of devotion in terms of rewards in this and coming lives. The<br />

care of one’s beloved was especially a strong motive, sometimes more powerful than<br />

desired individual gains. Considerably many saw their devotional practices as attempts<br />

to protect and secure the wellbeing of themselves and their family members.<br />

Being reborn into a human life-form in the next life was the primary goal of devotion.<br />

While some expressed their wishes to meet with somewhat better conditions, concerning<br />

health and prosperity, others emphasized that only in a human birth is the<br />

soul able to sustain and develop a closer relationship with the Guru.<br />

In a longer exposition a middle-aged man distinguished between different significations<br />

of the word mukti, of which some were in a human life-form and only one<br />

implicated a release from the cycle of rebirths. Liberation was, in his view, to be reborn<br />

with a human body and intellect since only this life-form provided possibilities<br />

to praise and remember God, perform recitations, and receive darshan of God. He also<br />

493<br />

Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008

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